Transnationalizing Modern Languages:
Mobility, Identity and Translation in Modern Italian Cultures
See project webpage for access to full project description:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/italian/research/projects/tml.
Project Student 1
Warwick Studentship
Italian
Dr Jennifer Burns
The thesis will examine the construction of the public profiles of figures
identified with the British Italian community who have achieved success in
the UK in the fields of hospitality, popular culture and entertainment. The
notion of 'success' carries significant emotional and psychological weight in
the context of migration, for both individual and community, and is rooted
in the image of the 'self-made man' who arrives with nothing and achieves
a publicly attested prominence which demonstrates a degree of dominion
for the 'outsider' over a sector of public life in the destination culture. Both
migrant and host communities invest - differently - in such narratives of
achievement. The thesis will investigate: the mechanisms through which
success is defined and valued, within migrant communities and the
broader destination culture; the ways in which it is performed in the public
arena; the extent to which public presentation draws upon the cultural
background of the successful figure; the cultural impact of such success in
the UK and Italy, in terms of modifying notions of 'Italian-ness'. It will focus
on a series of case studies of stars and celebrities identified with the British
Italian community since WWII, using published works by/about these
figures; published/recorded interviews, reviews and articles from national
and community- based media; viewing/sales figures and other industry
data; personal interviews where appropriate. Examples include: Charles
Forte and his son, Rocco (hotels/catering, 1930s-present), Antonio
Carluccio, Mary Contini (restaurateurs/food writers, 1980s-present), Lena
Zavaroni (child singer/tv star, 1970s), Paolo Nutini (singer/musician,
2000s-present). By tracing the reformulation of notions of the foreign/exotic
through these examples occurring in differently inflected historical
moments, the thesis will enhance understanding of how the performance
of 'Italian-ness' colours constructions of cultural otherness in the public
imagination.
This research contributes to the wider project by examining a key instance
of the representation and reception of migrant communities in the wider
public of the destination country. Celebrities and stars form the popular
face of a migrant community, and a detailed examination of how they
frame their public persona as such (or choose not to), and of how forces in
the reception culture (agents, critics, audience) construct them as 'Italian',
will inform and be informed by other research in the project on cultural
associations. Given that Italians in Britain have been associated, from the
earliest formation of the community (late C18th), with the food and
entertainment industries, a study of examples of success in these sectors
will develop an understanding of how cultural stereotypes can function as a
positive point of identification within the destination culture, whilst also
perpetuating forms of exclusion by publicly reproducing expected
behaviours. Such an understanding will benefit directly other strands of the
wider project, in terms of comparable instances of the public performance
of 'Italian-ness' in other contexts, and of comparable mechanisms in the
public identification abroad of other cultures, such as Hispanic. Selecting
examples across an extended chronological period, this PhD project
affords detailed insight into how notions of the foreign/exotic, especially in
public performance, persist in the construction of popular success even
where the individual celebrity may be of the 4th or 5th generation. As such,
this project tracks the work of the CI and supervisor (Burns) into how the
relationship with national culture is renegotiated over time in the practices
of self- identification of the British Italian community. It contributes to an
inquiry central to the 'Transnational Italies' project into how relations with
'home' and 'destination' cultures are perpetually reformulated. Moreover, it
does so by offering a distinctive emphasis on the performance and
reception of those relations specifically in popular culture, and by using
methodologies and theoretical frameworks -analysis of audience and
performance, star studies - which extend the range of research methods
used and developed by the project. This PhD research will be of sizeable
public interest in the UK and Italy, boosting the impact of the wider project
through media attention prompted by press releases.
The student will be supported in developing relevant methodological
expertise and skills through a series of opportunities. Doctoral training
programmes at Warwick offer dedicated sessions on relevant skills, such
as interviewing, capturing media information, public dissemination of
research. More specifically, the School of Theatre Studies, Performance
and Cultural Policy Studies and the Department of Film and Television
Studies at Warwick offer extensive postgraduate training provision in
relevant methodologies and theories. The student undertaking the project
will be strongly encouraged to engage with this training and will be
expected to have an interest in performance and visual culture
demonstrated at UG/PGT level. The discussions and events of the
'Transnational Italies' project will themselves offer subject-specific training,
placing the student into dialogue with researchers whose methodological
expertise will enhance this study: Duncan, for example, has worked on
representations of Albanian performers in Italy. Principally, the supervisor
(Burns) will be the reference point for training as well as guidance on the
development of the research itself. She has worked on visual culture and
the culture industry within her research on immigration culture in Italy, and
has experience of PhD supervision in the areas of cinema and popular
cultural history, as well as of literary studies. Through close discussion with
the student and monitoring of her/his progress, she will orientate the
student towards productive external support as the thesis develops.
Project Student 2
St Andrews studentship
School of Modern Languages
Professor Derek Duncan
-Transnational Italian Cinema. Italian diasporic culture as well as Italian
culture has tended to be studied within a national framework. ItalianAmerican Studies for example is a well-established field, and a fairly
substantial scholarly literature exists examining Italian migration in specific
national contexts, or analysing the representation of Italians in a particular
national culture. This PhD thesis will use film production as a way of
exploring Italian identity in a transnational frame. As a popular form, film
involves both questions of cultural representation and networks of
distribution and exhibition. The student will define a project which explores
cinematic representations of Italian identity outside Italy in multiple national
contexts, and looks at diasporic Italian film production. Films such as
Michael Radford's Another Time Another Place (UK, 1983), Sandra
Nettetbeck's Bella Martha (Germany, 2001), and Emile Gaudreault's
Mambo Italiano (Canada, 2003) are explorations of Italianness which
explicitly dramatise the construction of identity in translation for Italians
abroad and for the communities in which they live. The work of Italian-born
Australian film-maker Giorgio Mangiamele details the transformation of
Italian migrants as they adapt to life outside Italy. As an axis of
comparison, the thesis may also explore Italian representations of similar
phenonena such as Luigi Zampa's Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia
sposerebbe compaesana illibata (1971). The thesis will examine Italian
identity as it is represented across national boundaries. It will engage with
broad issues of cultural translation according to the interests of the
student. It may explore explicitly questions of language (subtitling, use of
Italian dialogue etc), or focus more broadly on questions of multicultural
identity, exchange and adaptation.
The primary research focus of 'Transnational Italies' as a whole is on
community associations. This PhD project adds breadth to the project by
examining a form of cultural production which is more obviously shared in
term of its distribution and consumption. The PhD will extend
'Transnational Italies'' interest in narrative and visual culture to include the
commercially produced moving image. By looking at film production in a
transnational rather than national context, the thesis will connect the work
of 'Transnational Italies' to recent scholarship in Film Studies and the move
beyond national histories of cinema. However, it will make a unique
contribution to Film Studies through its emphasis on translation. Combining
a high level of linguistic expertise with a strong background in cultural
criticism, the student will be ideally placed to make an original contribution
to Anglophone studies of non-English language cinemas by highlighting
processes of cultural translation in its representational and production
strategies. The thesis will offer a wider contextual frame for the strategies
of self-representation deployed by Italian community associations. In films
which deal equally with migrants and the communities around them, the
'contact zone' of cultural encounter is more explicitly referenced, and
therefore subject to inquiry.
The student will be supervised by Derek Duncan (St Andrews) who has
published extensively on Italian migration cinema. S/he will have access to
the expertise of other researchers on the project and will take part in all
research events including the Summer School at the Warwick Venice
Centre in 2015. There will be the opportunity to present work at Project
Workshops, and s/he will assist RA3 in organising project events at St
Andrews. The student's professional development will be enhanced
through participation at Impact events. Duncan currently supervises 2
students working on Italian colonial/postcolonial topics.
The School of Modern Languages at St Andrews is comprised of 6
departments with expertise ranging from the Middle Ages to the present
day. A number of colleagues (for example, Bond, Kefala, Milne) actively
research in cognate areas to those the PhD student. The School's new
undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Comparative Literature
make it an ideal base for a candidate pursuing research in a transnational
frame. The School provides postgraduate students with a structured
framework of supervision and annual progress review. The School runs a
programme of skills development sessions especially designed to prepare
postgraduate students for future careers (http://www.standrews.ac.uk/modlangs/prospectivestudents/postgraduate/skillsdevelopm
ent/). This also includes regular teacher training and a programme of
observation of permanent staff. Students also benefit from a University
organised generic skills programme (http://www.standrews.ac.uk/capod/gradskillsprogramme/). The School has a number of
active research centres which organise programmes of distinguished
visiting speakers. The Department of Film Studies at St Andrews will also
offer the student a stimulating research environment (http://www.standrews.ac.uk/filmstudies/research.php). The Italian Department hosts
PG-NOISES, the postgraduate network of Italian Studies in Scotland,
which offers students the opportunity to present their work and organise
research events.